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Ontario

PCs turn to Thompson, women for image update

Cottage country MPP to caucus chair of the scandal-­battered Ontario Progressive Conservatives.

Huron-Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson — now at the helm of a 29-member caucus turned upside down by serious sexual misconduct allegations against its former leader and president — has her work cut out for her.

“My biggest challenge will be to find 36 hours in the day,” said Thompson, just days into her new role.

Her appointment — and Christine Elliott’s entry Thursday into the race to lead the provincial Tories — are signs the party hoping to end 14 years of Liberal rule is getting the message, said Peter Woolstencroft, a retired University of Waterloo political science professor.

“The party obviously has an optics issue, and one way of addressing things — they have to do many, many things — is to put women at the various points of leadership,” he said.

“Women represent a different face of the party. . . It is the time for women.”

With the provincial election four months away, the PCs are quickly trying to rebuild after leader Patrick Brown and party president Rick Dykstra abruptly resigned amid a flurry of sexual misconduct allegations from several women.

None of the allegations against Brown or Dykstra have been proven in court.

Brown remains in the PC caucus, but was stripped of his education critic role by interim leader Vic Fedeli.

“I think Vic Fedeli, and more broadly the powers that be in the party, want to remove anything to do with Patrick Brown,” Woolstencroft said.

“The party can now say, ‘Hold it, Patrick Brown who? Look at all the people who have positions of responsibility within our party. We are looking forward not backward.’”

Thompson sat beside Fedeli in the legislature after she was first elected in 2011 and forged a bond with the Nipissing MPP.

“She must have done things reasonably well, if not very well, in the life of the party at Queen’s Park.”

Woolstencroft said the caucus chair role is about bridging gaps between factions and making sure members have the chance to be heard — tasks even more important with the PCs trying to rebuild.

“They know that if they are going to win, they need to be as clean as a proverbial whistle,” he said.

“Everything they do is part and parcel of that mission.”

Thompson’s appointment also recognizes the importance to the Tories of Southwestern Ontario, where they hold seven of 10 seats in the London region.

Nepean–Carleton MPP Lisa MacLeod — who on Tuesday ended speculation she would run for the leadership — was given the finance critic role vacated by Fedeli.

Thompson will continue her dual critic roles for international trade and Indigenous relations as well as serve as caucus chair as the party gears up for a quick leadership race and then a provincial campaign.

The Ontario PC party, Thompson said, “is “part of my DNA. I really believe in the PC party of Ontario. I really believe there’s never been a more important time for people to stand up.”

Thompson believes the party will be ready for the election campaign.

“I am so proud of our caucus and our candidates,” she said. “The foundation is still there. . . We’re out there campaigning on what we believe in.”

But a women’s advocate says it shouldn’t have taken a political fall from grace for the Tories to give key roles to women.

“It should not have taken this moment for any political party to be actively recruiting women to represent them at any level,” Shari Graydon said.

“The bottom line is that train left the station a long time ago.”

Graydon said there are numerous benefits of diversity — gender and otherwise — in governance and said women are sorely underrepresented in leadership roles.

“Women represent 50 per cent of the population, and it has been profoundly undemocratic that almost every elected body in the land is overwhelmingly populated by men,” she said.